Paul Semel has been writing professionally since 1990 and writing about games since 1993. Since then he has written for such magazines and websites as Entertainment Weekly, Bikini, EGM, OPM, GamePro, FHM, Maxim, Premiere, 1UP, Nintendo Power, Stuff, Men’s Journal, Vibe, Wired, and Teen People. He currently writes for Metromix, G4TV.com, Rides, Complex, and Paste.
Van: Would you consider yourself an avid gamer?
Paul Semel: I think my 60,000+ gamer score speaks for itself. Which is my snarky way of saying yes, yes I would. I play a couple hours every day for fun, on top of what I have to do for work, and find myself getting more excited about new games these days than I do about new movies, music, or episodes of my favorite TV shows. Not by munch, mind you, but enough to make it worth mentioning.
V: 60,000 is an extremely impressive gamerscore, how long has it taken
you to accumulate all those points?
PS: Well, I got my Xbox a week or so before it came out, so since then. I think it’s so big because I play a lot of different games. I tend not to play them more than once, and don’t play a lot of multiplayer, so I go from game to game to game.
V: How long have you been into gaming?
PS: I’ve been into games since I was a kid in the ’70s. I used to steal quarters from my dad’s dresser and go to the community center to play Tempest or to the Ground Round to play Asteroids.
V: What’s your favorite genre?
PS: I like to shoot things. More so from the first-person perspective than the third, but again, not by much.
V: What, in your opinion is your favorite game out of any genre?
PS: I always have a hard time with these sorts of questions because I don’t like dealing in absolutes. But some of my favorite games include the Halo series, Resident Evil 2 and 4, Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R., and the good Tomb Raider games.
V: Do you support one console more than others?
PS: Not really. I got into writing about games, in part, because I didn’t want to have to chose, I wanted to get all the consoles.
V: How often are you required to write?
PS: For games, our monthly coverage usually consists of two to four reviews, two or three screenshot galleries, a developer Q&A, and the occasional celebrity Q&A. These are split between the movie section, where we do movie-related games, and the TV section, where we do regular games.
V: Are there any video game perks that come with the job?
PS: You mean besides getting free games, game consoles, t-shirts, action figures, stuffed animals, and trips to cities foreign and domestic, as well as invites to parties like the Assassin’s Creed II — which was co-hosted by Kristen Bell and Maxim magazine — that I just got home from?
V: What’s the best part of reviewing video games?
PS: The first obvious but still true answer would be, “the friends I’ve made being a game journalist.” The second obvious but still true answer would be, “being able to make a living doing something I love.”
But the third answer, which may not be obvious but is, yes, true, would be that I’ve gotten to do things I wouldn’t have had I not been a journalist. Like getting to meet and interview such cool people as Aisha Tyler, Pauley Perrette, and Clive Barker. Or getting to shoot a sniper rifle. Or, most importantly, getting to play a game that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to try if I had to pay for it. I wasn’t at all interested in Mass Effect…until I played it at an event and fell in love with it. Had that not happened, I not only would not have ever played Mass Effect, but I never would’ve tried Fable III or Fallout 3, either. Oh, and yeah, the free stuff is cool, too.
V: Do you buy into the hype for the “blockbuster” games like the Halo, Call of Duty and other such franchises?
PS: Well, I’m kind of responsible for creating it, but I only do that when I’ve seen the game, or gotten to play it, and think it’s good. If I play a gamer early on, and I’m not into it, I don’t add to the hype. So I guess the answer is no, I don’t. I wait and see if a game is worth the hype.
V: There are people out there who say that video games are linked with violent and antisocial behavior. How would you respond to that?
PS: You cannot deny that media has an effect on people. If it didn’t, no one would’ve followed the Grateful Dead around, no one would line up for a new game machine or Star Wars movie, no one would buy Bill O’Reilly coffee mugs. What no one has ever shown, though — and I doubt they ever will — is that media can make someone do something they’re not inclined, even slightly, to do already. Consider all the people who’ve ever tried to blame their violent behavior on violent media. They always have social, mental, developmental, emotional, or psychologically problems. Same for kids who shoot up schools. The common thread is not Marilyn Manson or Grand Theft Auto, but a kid who has problems. Though, on a side note, isn’t it interesting that you only hear about what pop culture a school shooter is into if it is so-called violent music or games. You don’t hear what they’re into if they’re into country music or board games. Which is why you rarely hear what school shooters are into. But I digress. Look, I don’t think little kids should play GTA. No one in the industry does. I’m okay with the rating system and I’m okay with consoles having built-in parental controls. If more people paid attention and used them, we wouldn’t have these problems. But if you’re an adult who was raised right — who knows right from wrong, fantasy from reality — then some GTA isn’t going to do any hard. If anything, I put more blame on parents. Parents need to do their jobs.
V: If you were forced to drop all your video game collections except for
one platform (anywhere from the Sega Genesis, Gameboy, or Xbox) and one
game, what would it be?
PS: I’d probably say I’d want to keep Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, because I could play multiplayer for a very long time before I got totally bored.
